At least 74 people, including 12 children, died in Johannesburg on Thursday when a fire broke out in a five-storey building in the center of the South African city, according to the latest authorities’ tally.

“Among the 74 bodies that have been identified (…) we counted 12 children,” Thembalethu Balaza, head of the forensic service of the Gauteng province, which includes Johannesburg and Pretoria, said yesterday during a press conference.

Rescue crews have recorded the bodies of 24 women and 40 men. “Ten more have not been identified as the extent of the burns does not allow to determine the sex,” Balaza explained.

About 60 injured were taken to area hospitals.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa went to the site of the disaster yesterday and spoke of a “huge tragedy”, stressing that its causes must be investigated to prevent a similar incident from happening again in the future.

Homeless and immigrants

The cause of the fire is not yet known, but Emsini Tswaku, an official of the Johannesburg local authorities, estimated that it may have started from a lit candle or some means of heating.

In addition, the Johannesburg authorities confirmed that the building belongs to the municipality, but added that they have occupied a cartel.

“It’s a wake-up call for us to start addressing the housing issue in the city centre,” Ramaphosa said.

The building used to house a center providing assistance to abused women and their children, but when the lease expired, it was “occupied”, he explained to reporters.

Many buildings in the surrounding area have been deemed unfit for habitation. However, after being abandoned by their owners and the local authorities, they were taken over by criminal organizations, who take money from those who live in them. Their occupants are usually immigrants from other African countries.

These buildings do not have running water, toilets and are not officially connected to the electricity grid.

South Africa is faced with a chronic housing problem and there are an estimated 15,000 homeless people in Johannesburg.

“We need to address this and find effective ways to solve the problems of housing and services in the city centre,” Ramaphosa noted.

According to local authorities official Floyd Brink, about 200 families were affected by the fire, adding that “every effort” is being made to find places to house them.

Railings

The building is located in a run-down, insecure area of ​​Johannesburg, in a country with one of the highest crime rates in the world.

For this reason there were many bars in the building. On each floor there were barred doors which were closed at night to prevent intruders from entering. However, those doors also prevented occupants from leaving the building when the fire broke out in the middle of the night, according to witnesses.

When they noticed the fire, the tenants came out into the corridors and in the morning the fire brigade found dozens of bodies piled behind a locked door.

Eyewitnesses told reporters they saw people throwing babies out of windows to save them from the flames. “There were people grabbing babies and mattresses on the ground because of this,” said 25-year-old Mac Katleggo, a neighbor.

“We ran to try to find an escape route,” Kenny Boupe pointed out. The 28-year-old man said he had to break through a locked gate to escape the fire. “Others had already jumped from the windows because they knew the door was locked,” he added.

On the smoke-blackened facade of the building, tarps and blankets still hang from the windows. The occupants used whatever they had available to try to escape.

“There were bodies everywhere on the ground” after the fire, said Norma Malalela, a 41-year-old resident.

In the morning, rescue workers removed the bodies from the building and placed them on the pavement, before covering them with a cloth or blanket.